Michael van Gerwen is one of the greatest darts players of all-time, but, sadly, all good things have to come to an end.
Van Gerwen will go down as one of the greatest of all-time, but Mighty Mike may not have long left at the top level.
Van Gerwen has documented that he’s had some health problems as of late, that have caused him to miss tournaments, while MVG has also been accused of looking unhappy on the oche recently.
The Dutchman has always been steadfast in the view that he will be retired from darts by the age of 40, and at the age of 35 now, Van Gerwen may not have many more years left in him.
Speaking to Online Darts, Matthew Edgar has been discussing Van Gerwen’s potential retirement, and he reckons Mighty Mike could bow out once he manages to take a few titles from Luke Littler.
How Luke Littler could influence Michael van Gerwen’s retirement
Edgar claimed that Van Gerwen could now be viewing Littler as his final challenge.
The pundit noted that he thinks Van Gerwen may be ready to bow out of the game once he proves to himself he can still overcome players such as Littler and Luke Humphries.
“You look at interviews from years ago from Michael, he said he doesn’t want to play for a long period. Is this his last challenge, is it Luke Littler, I want to get him beat and take some titles away from him and Luke Humphries and then I can leave it in their hands so to speak? There are a lot of stories and context you can spin around it,” Edgar said.
What Van Gerwen has said about retirement
Edgar may be right, Van Gerwen may retire once he has secured a big win against Littler or Humphries in a major tournament.
MVG alluded to the fact he’d like to retire after a big win to Sky Sports a few years ago.
“I know it’s difficult to give up. I’ve also said that I want to retire when I’m 40, but you can’t see into the future because things in the world can change so quickly,” Van Gerwen said.
“If I want to stop playing, I’d want to stop after a huge win.”
In so many ways, this is reminiscent of Phil Taylor’s final run, The Power held off on retiring for years as he wanted to prove to the world that he was just as good, if not better, than Van Gerwen right up until the end, and with a World Matchplay win in his final year, Taylor certainly proved that point.
Of course, we hope The Green Machine is still playing darts for many more years, and the challenge of Littler at the top-level may be enough to push him to continue playing at the top-level for a little while longer.